ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,709,339, issued on Aug. 18, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).
"Crawler-type traveling body and traveling apparatus" was invented by Hiroshi Shimura (Kanagawa, Japan), Eichi Koizumi (Kanagawa, Japan), Taku Kitahara (Tokyo) and Hiroshi Okamoto (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A crawler-type traveling body includes: a crawler; a drive wheel including a drive shaft, the drive wheel configured to apply a driving force to the crawler; at least two track rollers disposed below the drive wheel, the crawler being stretched around the drive wheel and said at least two track rollers; and an auxiliary mechanism between said ...